Page 1 of Izzy and Her Off-Limits Love

ONE

Izzy

“For the last time,Liam is not my cousin.”

“If you say so.” Alisa sounds amused.

Behind me, my very nosy cubicle-mate clears his throat, and I swallow my next protest. Given Shaun’s attentiveness to every little thing I do, it’s pretty much a guarantee that he’s eavesdropping on this conversation. I lean back slightly in my chair, and yup—he jerks his beady gaze away from me.

I stand and quickly weave my way through the office cubes until I reach the conference room I frequently use as my escape.

It’s hardly ever occupied, but just my luck—today, there’s some kind of meeting happening. I don’t make eye contact with anyone through the glass windows, walking briskly and hoping it looks like I’m on an important call. I duck into the stairwell near the elevators.

“Why are you breathing like that? Is someone chasing you?” Alisa asks.

“I had to escape my cubicle.”

“Ugh, Shaun again?”

I sigh and lean against the wall. “He isn’t that bad.”

“He totally is that bad,” Alisa counters. “Are you sure you don’t want to come work with me?”

Savannah is right across the bridge from Oakley Island, where I grew up, so I have a lot of friends living in the city, but I met Alisa in a yoga class last month, and she’s been working her way to the top of my friend list ever since. She’s loyal and funny and a tiny bit ridiculous, which feels like the kind of friend everyone needs to have.

“The pay is terrible, and you’re grossly overqualified,” she adds, “but you’d get to eat lunch withmeevery day, so I’m just saying. Maybe forget you have a graduate degree and apply anyway?”

“Tempting,” I say. “But I think I’ll stick it out here.” Shaun is awful, but I’m at least in the right industry working at the Whitmire Group. Though, it’s not like I’m utilizing my grad degreehere,either.

“Suit yourself,” Alisa says. “Now tell me more about your sexy cousin.”

“Alisa! No! That’s the point. Liam and I aren’t blood related. Not on my mom’s side or my dad’s.” I suddenly regret ever confessing my feelings for Liam in the first place. I blame the margarita I drank after dinner last night. Just one, but apparently, that’s enough to loosen my tongue about my long-held crush on my non-cousin. The one I try never to talk about so I can pretend my feelings aren’t real. “His mom is Naomi, Jake’s sister. And Jake is married to?—”

“Eloise,” Alisa finishes for me. “Who is your stepmom’s sister. I got it. I saw the chart you drew on your napkin.”

I don’t bother correcting her. Technically, yes—Merritt is my stepmother. But I’ve never called her that. Probably becausefairy tales cemented the idea of stepmothers as evil in my mind, and nothing could be further from the truth.

Merritt and my dad got married when I was seven, and she’s been wonderful and supportive and all the best things for as long as I can remember. I never thought of her as a stepmom. Just—myothermom.

Plus, she came as a package deal that included her two sisters, both of whom also got married and relocated to Oakley Island. I’m lucky to have so much family, even if I do need a chart to explain how we’re all connected.

“But you still grew up calling each other cousins,” Alisa says, and I get the sense she’s enjoying this conversation way too much. “I like it. You’ve got that whole off-limits, forbidden love thing going on. It’s hot.”

“Oh my gosh, do I need to come over there right now?” I say, and Alisa starts to laugh. “Forbidden cousin love is not hot, and that isnotwhat this is.”

“Fine, fine. But actually, youshouldcome over,” Alisa says. “Chuck is in the office today, and he asked about you.”

Alisa and her boyfriend, Derek, have been trying to set me up with Chuck for a while, which is fine. Chuck is cute. Nice. But his unfortunate name aside, there is zero spark between us. The four of us had drinks together a few weeks back, and I just don’t have any interest. Mostly because he’s not Liam, but I’d rather not start up Alisa’s teasing again, so I keep that part to myself.

She’s wrong about Liam anyway. There is no forbidden love happening because itisn’tforbidden, but also because it’s not love. It’s just a one-sided crush—one I’ve held onto for too many years.

“Thanks, but no thanks,” I say. “Chuck is nice, but…”

“I know, I know, no spark,” Alisa says. “I can’t uninvite him from karaoke though. And you promised you’d come, so you can’t back out.”

As unappealing as Christmas karaoke sounded when Alisafirststrong-armed me into it, there isn’t enough spiked eggnog in the world to make it sound like fun now that my mind is circling the Liam drain.

But I did promise. And maybe it will be good for me? What cures thoughts of an impossible crush like Christmas karaoke?

---